It is a very vast subject. There are two ways to grasp it. One is to study it, and if you want to do this thoroughly you have to devote at least twenty years to the solid study of the yoga, and then you will know only the outline. My Teacher Shri Dada used to compare the holy yoga to the Ganges, in which children can play and paddle, and in which the West and most expert swimmer can swim, and the depths of which no one can fathom.

Although it is so profound that it takes at least twenty years of study to grasp its outline, certain of its phases are so simple that you can easily apply them to your daily life. It relates to the Self. It is an analysis of the vestures of the Self, which are mind, both conscious and subconscious, and the physiological and anatomical aspects of the physical body.

When this analysis is properly made and you begin to live it, it promotes in your soul the growth of a new light. It will not give you the ability to know the thoughts of President Truman, nor wings to fly in the air. Those who believe such things and try to practise them are victims of dupes and humbugs. Yoga will not give you any physical advantage. It does not claim to make you a Hercules. It will not transform old ladies into objects of admiration for football champions. Its main object is the study of the Self of man, of the powers of the mind and of the powers that are hidden in the mind and to demonstrate how it can walk from the thorny jungle of sense experience to the rose garden of peace and tranquillity.

There are certain aspects of this yoga which are open to each and everybody, in any condition and in any state of life; and there are certain aspects only suitable for those who have learned to control their personality, learned how to tranquillize their heart and how to practise withdrawal from the objects of the senses, and who are willing to dedicate their heart, full of yogic wisdom, to the service of humanity. Medical science is very deep. It takes ten, fifteen or twenty years to become a good doctor; but there are certain things in medical science which you can learn and by which you can benefit, without becoming a good doctor. In this spirit, I offer you certain phases of this yoga which you can practise for yourselves and can immensely benefit by them.

The chief benefit is that the horizons of your mind expand in tranquillity, that you acquire patience in pain and adversity, and that you are willing to make sacrifices in order to discover the divinity lying latent in your mind. These things you can verify for yourselves.

Now I will give you some meditation practices. The best time for meditation is the morning. There are certain influences in the rays of the sun which are only found early in the morning when the sun emerges out of the horizon. If you meditate at this time you get advantages which otherwise you will find difficult to obtain.

When you are prepared, that is, after undergoing due physical preparation in the matter of washing and so on, sit in a clean spot with great interest and no scepticism. You can learn nothing by saying, 'Oh, I am practising; let me see what comes out of it'. The speaker has been a student his whole life, and has never approached any subject in this spirit. Do it in entire seriousness. When you begin to meditate, you feel you are entering the force of all forces, who has created the universe by one motion of his will, who sustains the birds flying in the air and sustains thousands of other planets. Into his presence you are now entering. It is essential that you have this mood. Sit in the meditation posture, bringing your spinal column and neck in line. Then take twenty-one deep and slow breaths. Start breathing by imagining that your breath begins at your navel and slowly terminates between the two eye-brows. Twenty-one incoming and twenty-one outgoing breaths. If you do only this little exercise, in a few days' time you will feel that your nerves are becoming tranquil, that your mind is not so stormy as it used to be and that you can calm it easily.

When you have done this, repeat mentally for two or three minutes, 'All is illusion; all is illusion; all is illusion; all is emptiness'. This practice is common to the Zen mystics, where they say that the one who practises it becomes a sage, meaning by this 'perfectly tranquillized'. You will say that it is not a fact. Take it from me that it is a fact - all is illusion. This is an aspect of the ontology of Shri Shankara. You look at the clouds; if you analyse them you find that there is no such thing as clouds, it is all vapour. When you analyse the vapour, you find that it is all gases, when you analyse the gases you find that there are no gases but some mysterious substance at the back of them which we cannot comprehend. The same applies to every object. Do this exercise for two minutes. Any thought which your mind brings before you, dismiss it by saying 'It is all illusion'. When you have known that a thing is illusory, you do not become attached to it, you do not let it master and overpower you.

Then concentrate on the heart region and meditate on these words: 'Infinite is Spirit. It passes through me'. The whole practice must occupy at least fifteen minutes. At the end, stretch out your arms and give your blessings to the whole world, remembering that it is the height of ignorance to hate anybody.